Dunno if I've just been extremely unlucky, but Amex is driving me crazy.

(1) I find an overnight envelope sitting in my front entryway one day (I rarely use the front door since I can actually park in the garage), it had been there for almost a week based on the postage (entryway has a door on the outside, fortunately, so nobody passing by knew it was there). Open it up to find a new Amex card and a note saying something like "Here's the replacement card you requested." Err, I never requested one.

Call up Amex, get someone on the phone who explains that apparently I called them about 10 days prior requesting a replacement card. Meanwhile, I'm pulling up my account online. According to the rep, I wanted a replacement because the card I had was the wrong type (the replacement was the same type). According to the website, I reported it lost/stolen.

After about 10 minutes of back-and-forth with the rep almost insisting that it was me, I shifted tacks and asked why I didn't get any notification. I get three alerts from Amex every time the wind blows, how is it possible I wouldn't get anything for this? He didn't know, but he helpfully pointed out that it was standard security practice to disable the card when a replacement is being sent (not what I'd asked, but okay). Only problem was, I'd used that card a dozen times since that phone call, it was never disabled. Again, couldn't get an explanation.


I didn't get too worked up over it, one mixup isn't the end of the world. Flash forward a few months to incident two:

(2) I get an alert one morning for a $1700 charge to TACA Airlines for tickets to Costa Rica. Now, first off, I used this card for two things: gas and groceries. I've never had a charge over $100 on it and I don't think I've ever even used it outside my city. This charge should have thrown up a warning sign the size of a football stadium Jumbotron. That their fraud prediction systems couldn't catch this really bothers me.

I call up and explain to the rep that it wasn't a valid charge. She says (as close as I can recall): "Unfortunately, we can't do anything about it now. You'll need to wait for it to show up on your next billing statement [three weeks away], and then call us back. At that point we can flag it as fraudulent and open an investigation." Wha?!?! You can't flag a transaction while it is still pending? We went back and forth for a bit with me trying to understand that policy. Eventually I decided to just wait until it showed up online (2-3 days later) and try again (it worked). I asked her to freeze the card and send a replacement, and she explained that they only issue replacement cards after *multiple* fraudulent charges.


Now, compare that to my oldest (and favorite) USAA card:
A few years back, within fifteen minutes of a fraudulent $75 charge to a casino in Biloxi, they had frozen my card, called me, confirmed it wasn't a valid charge, killed the card and submitted a request to have a new card rush delivered to where I was vacationing in NC at the time.


Am I just getting stuck with incredibly lazy Amex reps, or has USAA completely spoiled me all these years?